Fergie's Tech Blog

UK e-Crime Chief: Cyber Criminals Are Undeterred

Jeremy Kirk writes on InfoWorld:

Last year, the U.K. dissolved the National High-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), the agency responsible for investigating computer crime. The unit was folded into the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), a new organization that investigates fraud, drug trafficking and immigration-related crime. Critics charged that online crime would become a lower priority.

Nearly a year later, SOCA is "not achieving the kind of long-term impact on serious and organized crime ... that's needed," said William Hughes, SOCA's director general, at the International e-Crime Congress in London on Tuesday.

The agency has a 94 percent conviction rate and made 684 arrests from April 2006 through February, mostly for drug trafficking but also including some e-crime, Hughes said. However, online banking fraud in the U.K. continues unabated. Online banking fraud losses in the U.K. rose to £33.5 million ($44.5 million) in 2006, up from £23.2 million in 2005 and £12.2 million in 2004, according to the Association for Payment Clearing Services, a payments trade group.

posted by Fergie @ 3/27/2007 11:00:00 AM